Rusty Priest: A life devoted to the RSL

When an idea needed a champion, Rusty Priest was the man to go to. He was a hard man to beat in negotiations and one who "called a spade a bloody shovel", as Premier Barry O'Farrell said of him. Priest had a long list of jobs done, and done properly, behind him.

One of the earliest campaigns that really brought him into the public eye was when he was president of the NSW RSL and conceived the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway, which was opened in 1996. In 1994, Priest had the vision for the walkway, saw it through to completion and served as the board chairman until 2012, then continued to serve a patron.

Today, the walkway runs for 800 metres between Concord Hospital and Rhodes Station. It includes a series of granite walls with images of the New Guinea Campaign sandblasted on them, a rainforest area leading to a pond overlooking the Parramatta River, rose-covered pergolas, two circular memorial walls set in beds of roses and 22 stations to mark battles and important events in the New Guinea Campaign (1942-1945).

In 1998, Priest persuaded the then premier, Bob Carr, to have the prosaically named Glebe Island Bridge re-named the Anzac Bridge. On Anzac Day, 2000, a bronze statue, by Alan Somerville, of a World War I digger was unveiled at the western end of the bridge. Priest had managed to conspire with Somerville to leave a small cavity beneath the statue's left boot. At the ceremony, Priest put a small bottle of sand from Anzac Cove under the soldier's foot. "The idea was that the digger would forever be standing with his mates at Gallipoli," he said afterwards.

Advertisement

The bridge continued to hold a special place in Priest's heart. In 2002, he said, "Every time I go across it, I'm reminded of blokes like Alec Campbell, Jack Lockett and Ted Matthews, the last of the original Anzacs ... I deliberately drive out of my way to cross the bridge, just to say 'G'day Charlie', or 'G'day Jack', or just 'G'day Digger'."

In 2008, a statue of a New Zealand soldier in the traditional "lemon squeezer" hat was added across the road from the digger statue to complete the Anzac part of the bridge's name.

Priest even knew how to retire gracefully when the time came. As he stepped down from the presidency of the NSW RSL in 2002, he said: "The World War II veterans are ageing and they will start to pass, so we need to have a representative from the generation it's changing to. I'm leaving with . . . the great satisfaction of knowing that the RSL today is looked upon in NSW as an organisation that's strong and that has remained relevant. We've strengthened the community's resolve to commemorate Anzac Day and Remembrance Day and victory in the Pacific. Because we've done that, the RSL is seen as the virtual guardian of commemoration and remembrance."

As was his nature, Priest might have given up the presidency but he continued to serve. He went to ceremonies as required, was always happy to give a good quote when war graves were attacked by vandals and kept on reminding people about what service men and women had done for their country.

Godfrey Eugene Priest was born in Melbourne in June 1927, one of three sons of William Priest and his wife, Patricia (nee O'Keeffe). Patricia died when the boys were young and William raised them. Godfrey went to the Christian Brothers College in East St Kilda, where he got the nickname "Rusty" for his red hair and freckles. After finishing school, he became a clerk in the Department of Information but, as soon as he turned 18, he enlisted in the 2nd AIF.

He had just finished his training at Cowra when Japan surrendered and the war ended. Priest served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces Signals Regiment, 8th US Army Signals Corps and “A” Field Battery Royal Australian Army in Japan from April 1946 until December 1948.

He decided to stay in the army and over the next 22 years moved through artillery, infantry and combined operations. In 1955, he married his wife, Merle. He finished his time in the army with a promotion to Warrant Officer Class I and a posting to the Directorate of Artillery at Army Headquarters in Canberra, and retired in September 1967.

The Priests moved to Revesby in Sydney and Rusty took an administration position at the University of Sydney, where he stayed until he retired again, in 1990. He also joined the Revesby Heights Ex-Servicemen's Club and was elected president of the local RSL sub-branch in 1987. He was state president of the NSW RSL from 1993 to 2002, deputy national president of the RSL from 1997 to 2002, metropolitan vice-president of the RSL and delegate to the Future of the League Seminar in 1987 and far southern metropolitan district councillor from 1986 to 1990. He was also a member of the City Sydney RSL, Miranda RSL and Merrylands RSL.

As a volunteer, among many other positions, Priest was a member of the Mental Health Priority Task Force NSW Health from 2005, deputy chairman of the Gallipoli Scholarship fund from 1997 to 2003, a member of the Australia Red Cross Society (NSW) from 2002 to 2005, a NSW Health Participation Councillor from 2002 to 2004, with the Australian Vietnam War Veterans Trust from 1997 to 2003, a member of the Anzac Health and Medical Research Foundation from 1996 to 2011, honorary governor of the Ageing and Alzheimers Research Foundation from 1995 and chairman of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway Committee from 1995.

In 1997, Priest was made a Member of the Order of Australia and in 2003 he was awarded a Centenary Medal.

For all his dedication to the Anzacs and their service, Priest wasn't a fuddy-duddy about it. In 1996, when an Anzac Day rugby league match was proposed, many people spoke against it. Priest, in his role as the NSW RSL president, said that the RSL would have no objection providing the match occurred after the last memorial service at 5 pm, and observed "due solemnity", adding that the RSL saw it "more as a publicity angle" for the organisation of war veterans to tap into the mindset of Australian youth. The following year, the first match was played.

In 2005, when he was in his late 70s, Priest led a 15-member team along the Kokoda track as an educational tour for supporters of the Memorial Walkway.

The current RSL state president, Don Rowe, paid tribute to Priest, describing him as an outstanding leader dedicated to veterans' welfare and the commemoration of Australia's military history.

“After retiring from the Army, Rusty devoted his life to the RSL and to making sure that the community at large never forgot the sacrifices that had been made. He was a mentor to me and to many others of the post-World War II generation who joined the League and took up positions of responsibility. His contribution was simply outstanding.”

Rusty Priest is survived by children Michael and Carole-Anne and four grandchildren. Merle died in 2011. The NSW government has announced that there will be a state funeral, at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney on Wednesday October 2 at 11am.